D&D 5E Heroes of Baldur's Gate is a D&D Adventure From Bioware's Baldur's Gate Designer

Burnside · Apr 25, 2019

Hutchimus Prime said:
For people who bought it, for what the Epic Backgrounds?

There are four epic backgrounds that have some ties to events and characters in the adventure. They're all pretty wacky and won't be to everyone's taste, but can easily be toned down or modified as desired. They each come with suggested personality traits, extra skills like all backgrounds, some features, and storyline goals (some of which can be accomplished during the adventure, while others would be to pursue if you continue with the character beyond the scope of this adventure (characters reach level 6 at the end).

Child of Bhaal - you're a Bhaalspawn, like the protagonist of the CRPG.
Storyline goals (attainable): Find Sarevok's research on Bhaalspawn, kill another Bhaalspawn (allows you to become the Slayer 1/day for 10 rounds)
Storyline goals (longer term): Cleanse yourself of Bhaal's taint or become a god
Features: You can't be resurrected if dead for more than 24 hours. You get 4 death saves instead of 3.

The Awakened Clone - you're the clone of an archmage - you have the mage's body, but your own personality
Storyline goals (attainable): get yourself a soul (if you do, you get to acquire either the Magic Initiate or War Caster feat - your choice)
Storyline goals (long-term): Confront your creator
Feature: Time limits on spells that restore you to life don't apply. For instance, you can be resurrected with a Revivify spell even if you've been dead for days - as long as your body is there. However, if your body is destroyed, NOTHING can bring you back - not even True Resurrection or Wish.

The Last Emperor - you are an emperor of a long-dead civilzation. You've been in suspended animation inside a sarcophagus that was being kept in the Hall of Wonders in Baldur's Gate. Somebody woke you up AND stole your sarcophagus.
Goal (attainable): Find your sarcophagus (get Inspiring Leader feat if you do)
Goal (long-term): Dreams are haunted by family & loved ones - needs to find what happened to them or where they are
Feature: Can't be surprised when resting (dream spirits always warn you & wake you up)

The Reincarnated - you're a reincarnated green dragon
Goal (attainable) - Recover your hoard
Goal (long-term) - End the curse and change back into a dragon
Feature: Advantage on any Nature, History, Arcana, and Survival checks concerning the Cloakwood (your old stomping grounds - more useful than it sounds, as a lot of the adventure takes place there)

Paul Farquhar · Apr 25, 2019

It's worth noting that a couple of the suggested originals for the Awakened Clone are Halaster or Acererak, which could be a good set up for doing Undermountain or ToA next. (some time zone conflicts to resolve though).

Von Ether · Apr 25, 2019

dave2008 said:
This is the post I was responding too:
"So I wonder how many people who crow, "If it ain't WotC, it ain't official D&D for me and that goes double for the Guild Adepts to boot," are going to change their minds when it comes to this product?

I wonder when OBS is going to let other companies offer POD for their community content projects?"

I don't see how the first paragraph says what I said. However, I do see where you specified "community content projects," which I missed. Of course I did mention that they allow it for DMs Guild, so I kinda answered that too.

I wonder when OBS is going to let other companies offer POD for their community content projects?

Considering that was the question above, you answered the opposite.

dave2008 · Apr 25, 2019

Von Ether said:
Considering that was the question above, you answered the opposite.

I thought the "other" was referring to OBS, I didn't realize you were referring to WotC. I was reading the paragraphs as being unrelated (since they are). Really I just read it too quickly. I think that is obvious by this point, but it seemed liked you wanted a clarification - so I gave one! Cheers!

dave2008 · Apr 25, 2019

Burnside said:
There are four epic backgrounds that have some ties to events and characters in the adventure. They're all pretty wacky and won't be to everyone's taste, but can easily be toned down or modified as desired. They each come with suggested personality traits, extra skills like all backgrounds, some features, and storyline goals (some of which can be accomplished during the adventure, while others would be to pursue if you continue with the character beyond the scope of this adventure (characters reach level 6 at the end).

Child of Bhaal - you're a Bhaalspawn, like the protagonist of the CRPG.
Storyline goals (attainable): Find Sarevok's research on Bhaalspawn, kill another Bhaalspawn (allows you to become the Slayer 1/day for 10 rounds)
Storyline goals (longer term): Cleanse yourself of Bhaal's taint or become a god
Features: You can't be resurrected if dead for more than 24 hours. You get 4 death saves instead of 3.

The Awakened Clone - you're the clone of an archmage - you have the mage's body, but your own personality
Storyline goals (attainable): get yourself a soul (if you do, you get to acquire either the Magic Initiate or War Caster feat - your choice)
Storyline goals (long-term): Confront your creator
Feature: Time limits on spells that restore you to life don't apply. For instance, you can be resurrected with a Revivify spell even if you've been dead for days - as long as your body is there. However, if your body is destroyed, NOTHING can bring you back - not even True Resurrection or Wish.

The Last Emperor - you are an emperor of a long-dead civilzation. You've been in suspended animation inside a sarcophagus that was being kept in the Hall of Wonders in Baldur's Gate. Somebody woke you up AND stole your sarcophagus.
Goal (attainable): Find your sarcophagus (get Inspiring Leader feat if you do)
Goal (long-term): Dreams are haunted by family & loved ones - needs to find what happened to them or where they are
Feature: Can't be surprised when resting (dream spirits always warn you & wake you up)

The Reincarnated - you're a reincarnated green dragon
Goal (attainable) - Recover your hoard
Goal (long-term) - End the curse and change back into a dragon
Feature: Advantage on any Nature, History, Arcana, and Survival checks concerning the Cloakwood (your old stomping grounds - more useful than it sounds, as a lot of the adventure takes place there)

Those sound fun - thank you for sharing!

BookBarbarian · Apr 25, 2019

robus said:
I remember them getting upset about people using their own trade dress for their products. I didn't realize they encouraged adopting their own so thoroughly

There's essentially 2 sets of rules.

One for publishing on the DMsGuild (trade dress away!) and one for publishing based on the OGL (You can make your own game even, but don't even think about mentioning D&D).

Guest 6801328 · Apr 25, 2019

I've been looking for reviews on this product, but everything I've found so far shows distinct nostalgia for Baldur's Gate and its iconic characters, which makes me wonder how objective the reviews are. Which would be entirely understandable; I just don't personally care about those aspects.

Anybody want to try to give an objective opinion about this adventure, as it would be experienced by players with zero knowledge of the lore? Or know a good review?

Burnside · Apr 25, 2019

Elfcrusher said:
I've been looking for reviews on this product, but everything I've found so far shows distinct nostalgia for Baldur's Gate and its iconic characters, which makes me wonder how objective the reviews are. Which would be entirely understandable; I just don't personally care about those aspects.

Anybody want to try to give an objective opinion about this adventure, as it would be experienced by players with zero knowledge of the lore? Or know a good review?

Haven't read the whole thing, but here's my impression:

THE GOOD
- Production value in terms of art, layout, maps is top notch. Occasional sidebar in-character commentary by NPCs is a fun touch.
-Generous amount of content for a $19.99 PDF. mini-campaign, NPCs, bestiary, and a gazeteer of the adventure area (which is exactly the same as the area featured in the first Baldur's Gate CRPG from 1998).
- Adventure is fast-paced, fairly easy to run, and has high stakes
- Plenty of room for an experienced DM to add their own sub-plots and encounters
- If you're looking primarily for a nostalgic experience drawing heavily on the game, this delivers. All the most popular characters are there, and it re-visits several of the exact same locations, including Baldur's Gate & its undercity, the Friendly Arm Inn, and Cloakwood & its mines.
- I THINK this is still a perfectly good adventure if you never played Baldur's Gate, and the adventure does not assume that you have. You are given all the info you've need. Nevertheless, I feel like it's aimed straight at customers who have played it. The characters who reappear from the game are done in a way that makes them feel very much like the same people from the game (not surprising, since the writers are the same).
- It's adorable and earnest. Imoen tells you she "knows you can do it!"
- There are some fun surprises and twists in the plot

CONS

- Read-aloud text is below average and often very generic and not evocative. Examples: people in Baldur's Gate are often described as wearing "exotic" clothing, with no elaboration on what exactly they're wearing, which paints no visual picture at all. Info is imparted in the read-aloud text that should be sussed out through roleplaying ("Coran seems cheerful, but he's really sad.")
- There are random encounter tables for both the city and Cloakwood. Most of the random encounters are fairly uninspired. Many DMs will replace with their own stuff.
- The opening "adventure" to progress the characters from level one to two is basically two encounters. Not bad encounters, but feels too thin.
- There are some cliched moments and encounters

If you dislike the Forgotten Realms setting, this won't change your mind. It has all the things you dislike about FR - the terrible names ("Halbazzar Drin"), the generic-ness, the high magic heroism.

If you love FR, this delivers on the stuff you probably love about FR.

I give it a thumbs up. A thoughtful, fun product. Not just a cash-in, the creators obviously put real work into this. As a nostalgia piece, it does it's job really well. Nostalgia aside, it's imperfect but I think would hold up as a perfectly good mini-campaign.

Burnside · Apr 26, 2019

Oh, one other fairly significant issue: I can count the number of times in the entire mini-campaign that the authors found occasion to include ANY skill checks on my fingers. In the entire first two chapters there is exactly one skill check (and it's to pick a lock). Definitely feels like from a design standpoint they had 2e in mind more than 5e in that regard.

Guest 6801328 · Apr 26, 2019

Burnside said:
Oh, one other fairly significant issue: I can count the number of times in the entire mini-campaign that the authors found occasion to include ANY skill checks on my fingers. In the entire first two chapters there is exactly one skill check (and it's to pick a lock). Definitely feels like from a design standpoint they had 2e in mind more than 5e in that regard.

It almost feels like you're trolling me.

(Maybe you haven't been following the threads about 'skill checks'...)